


[Fic & Podfic] The Thirty-Sixth Candle

by fire_juggler, fire_juggler_writes (fire_juggler)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Audio Format: M4B, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Fluff, M/M, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7099714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fire_juggler/pseuds/fire_juggler, https://archiveofourown.org/users/fire_juggler/pseuds/fire_juggler_writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco celebrates his 36th Birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[Fic & Podfic] The Thirty-Sixth Candle

**Author's Note:**

> Created for [Draco Malfoy's Birthday Party 2016](http://dracomalfoy.livejournal.com/tag/draco%27s%20birthday%20party%202016) over at the [dracomalfoy LJ comm](http://dracomalfoy.livejournal.com/)
> 
> Also fills the "Write and Record your Own Fic" square on my podfic_bingo card.

Cover Art created by fire_juggler.

| 

## Streaming Audio:

**Mobile Device Streaming (unzipped mp3)** : [**click here**](http://fire-juggler.parakaproductions.com/podfic/the_thirty_sixth_candle.mp3)

## Length:

00:12:30 

## Downloads:

  * [MP3](http://fire-juggler.parakaproductions.com/podfic/the_thirty_sixth_candle-mp3.zip) | **Size:** 12.2 MB
  * [M4B](http://fire-juggler.parakaproductions.com/podfic/the_thirty_sixth_candle-m4b.zip) | **Size:** 6.5 MB 



## Music Snippets:

["Sleep", from 101 Sleep Songs](https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sleep-music-101-sleep-songs/id474724970).   
---|---  
  
_The first candle flares._

_The first images are always kind of blurry, literally fuzzy around the edges.  Draco always wonders if they get blurrier with time, but from one year to the next, he can never tell.  The first five candles are a hazy montage of his mother's smiles, his father tossing him up into the air, bright colors, laughter._

_The first candles are seductive.  They hold the promise of a life's potential._

~~~~~~~

When Draco wakes up, he doesn't remember the date until he wanders to his reading room and sees the candelabra.  He stops and curses under his breath.  Old magic was sometimes more nuisance than blessing.  There it is, sitting innocently on the mantle: thirty-five candles already in their sconces and one nascent, iron bud poking out from the right side.  He wonders, vaguely, if muggle-borns have this problem.

~~~~~~~

_By the tenth candle, the reading room is brightening. The image comes to life.  He can actually feel the wind whipping past his face as he chases his father on his first real broom — not the training kind, but an actual Cleansweep Six that didn't tether him within 3 meters of the ground.  As the image shifts, he sees his own hand as he lights the candles of his candelabra and watches the images spring into view.  Draco remembers thinking that at ten years old, he has a whole lifetime of candles._

~~~~~~~

It's odd, Draco thinks as he dresses for work, that at 35 years and 364 days, his body was just… his body.  But in the eight hours between sleeping and waking, and the appearance of that damned candelabra, he's looking at himself more closely in the mirror.  Not so pointy, now.  His suit is still impeccably cut, but as he buttons his shirt he notices that he’s a bit more, well, squishy around the edges.  He leans in and looked closely at his scalp.  Did the grey hairs sneak in last night? Thank Merlin he was blond.  Not old, he tells himself.  Definitely not that.  But not… young.  He smiles a bit.  When he was 16, he remembers thinking that Severus was ancient -- older than the hills.  He has a brief thought that maybe Severus felt like this on his 36th birthday.  Not old.  Not young.  Not new.  Not… finished.  

~~~~~~~

_The seventeenth candle is dark.  He's surprised it actually lights.  He sees his mother's forced, worried smile, and his father's grim face.  He sees his hand reach for the present that is more afterthought than anything else, sees bottom of the Dark Mark.  He remembers feeling scared, truly scared, for the first time in his life.  The image is nearly obscured by the fear in his memories, it creeps around the edges like smoke._

~~~~~~~

Work is as it always is, as it has been for the past decade, and this is a good thing.  Draco loses himself in the alchemical manuscripts.  He loves it — the esoteric language, the secret codes, untangling the facts from the lore.  Strictly speaking, he's volunteering, but he likes having a place to go every day.  A purpose.  The cool, dryness of the cellar keeps him focused on his work, and when he surfaces for lunch, he's nearly forgotten the date until Mr. Merrythought wishes him a happy birthday. He smiles and thanks him.  He has places to be and the candelabra won't be kept waiting.  It's a persistent bugger, so it's better to get home and take care of things, so that he can get on with his life.

~~~~~~~

_The twentieth candle is all Harry.  God, they were happy.  Most of the images shift over the years, showing different pieces that particular birthday.  But the twentieth candle is always the same.  Harry, tangled in sheets, wishing him a happy birthday, his hand reaching out, beckoning him back to bed.  His smile is so bright._

~~~~~~~

Draco is standing in front of the candelabra when he hears the front door slam.

"Shit! Did I miss the seventeenth candle? Hi. Happy Birthday!" 

Harry is all motion, flinging down his messenger bag and juggling a pastry box and two shopping bags.  He practically falls into the reading room.

"Hi. Did I say that? Happy birthday. It's been a day.  Did I miss the seventeenth candle?"  The kiss is perfunctory and lands on his ear, but it smells like Harry.

Draco smiles, "Did you bake me a cake?"

"I burned you a cake.  And then I aired out the kitchen and went to Sweet Tooth Fairy and bought cupcakes."

"Even better. You missed the seventeenth candle."

Harry wilts a little.  "Shit."

"I don't know why you like it."

Harry stops.  After the flurry of motion, the lack of it is almost startling.  "I don't like it," he says.  "I just don't like you seeing it alone.  I know you kind of dread it, and…."  He sighs.  "I guess… I guess there's a part of me that likes the fact that every year, that slice of your life becomes a smaller percentage of the whole."  

Draco attempts a smirk but has a feeling it’s more of a sappy smile, so he turns back to the candelabra.  "I'm on twenty-one."

"Aw, I missed me?"  Arms sneak around his waist; a chin rests on his shoulder.

He says, "I left you a month after that birthday."

He feels Harry smile against his ear.  "Thank Merlin.  We would have destroyed each other if we'd stayed together at twenty."

~~~~~~~

_The twenty-fifth candle is Astoria.  Beautiful Astoria, with her dark hair gleaming and her eyes dancing, and Draco's heart fills with love when he watches her laughing.  The sun is shining and there is cake and everything is perfect._

~~~~~~~

"Merlin, Astoria is so great."  The words are murmured into Draco's ear without a hint of jealousy and Draco settles.  He always worries a little about the twenty-fifth candle and Harry.

"She snores."

"Really? That makes me feel better."  Harry's arms tighten around his belly.

Draco grins, "So do you."

"Tough luck."

Draco's shoulders shake with laughter, "Nobody suffers like I suffer."

~~~~~~~

_Scorpius grins out of the twenty-seventh candle.  His face is covered in chocolate and he's squirming in Astoria's lap.  Just barely walking, it's a challenge not to reach out and steady him.  This year, the image shows him breaking free and heading for the gardens, trailing chocolate crumbs behind him._

~~~~~~~

"Hard to believe he's going to Hogwarts next year."

"He's a good kid," Harry says.  "You and Astoria did a good job."

"He is, isn't he?  Better than I was at that age"

Harry snorts, "that is a fairly low bar."

"Prat."

~~~~~~~

_The thirtieth candle is just Draco.  He's working in the same cellar he was in today, surrounded by texts, scribbling furiously.  Draco doesn't remember feeling lonely at the time — post-Astoria, pre-Harry — but he looks very alone._

~~~~~~~

"I know you hate the seventeenth candle, but it's thirty and thirty-one that I don't like," Harry says.

"Because I'm all alone?"

Harry scoffs, "Hardly.  Because they're boring."

"We can't have exciting birthdays every year," Draco says.

"Can you imagine what it would be like for Dumbledore?  He'd be 135 this year.  He'd be watching this candelabra for, like, days, and might possibly burn down the house trying to light them all."

"The individual images get shorter as you age," Draco says. "When I was six, each one was about 10 minutes long.  After 100, I would presume that each one would only be 30 seconds or so."

"What happens if you just ignore it?" Harry asks.

"You don't want to know." Draco says.  

"Oh, I really, really do."

"I had an uncle who ignored his for a week.  He ended up in hospital with a concussion after the candelabra tried to get his attention by bashing him in the head while he was sleeping.  It was waiting for him when he woke up."

"Weirdest. Malfoy. Tradition. Ever."

~~~~~~~

_The living room is full in the thirty-fifth candle.  Astoria and Blaise are drinking wine, cuddled up on the sofa.  Scorpius and Rose are playing some game that Draco has never learned to rules to.  Harry is across the room, playing chess with Ron and getting slaughtered.  The cake is reduced to crumbs, and there is laughter and warmth._

~~~~~~~

Harry sighs, "That was a good memory."

"It's a pity Astoria, Blaise, and Scorpius are out of the country this year.  We could do it again."

Draco feels nimble fingers start to unbutton his shirt.  

"Oh, I think we can make a pretty good memory this year, just the two of us."  

The fingers dip lower, and Draco smiles, "We still have one candle to go."

The nascent bud from this morning has grown to a fully-formed arm, the thirty-sixth candle nestled into the brand new sconce. 

"I love this part," Harry says.

"There's nothing to watch."

"I know," Harry says, "but I like the possibility.  I like that this year, it's just a candle, and that we get to decide what it's going to show next year.  And next year? Next year I want to blush."

Draco laughs and reaches out with his wand.

~~~~~~~

_The thirty-sixth candle flares white._

 

**The End**


End file.
